Jeffrey Bigelow, editor of The Virginia Weekly, published an ad
for a New York agency offering to connect women in Virginia (where
abortion law was more restrictive) with abortion doctors in New
York (where abortion law was more permissive). He was convicted
under a Virginia law which made it a crime to "encourage or prompt
the procuring of abortion." Bigelow filed suit claiming the law
violated his First Amendment right to free speech.

The Supreme Court agreed. The Court, noting that the First
Amendment gives some protection even to commercial speech,
concluded the abortion ad was entitled to protection because it
promoted services that were legal in New York and contained
abortion information of "constitutional interest" to the general
public.